The African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (AVCA) has launched the Francophone Africa-focused Legal & Regulatory Committee, a sub-Committee of AVCA’s Legal & Regulatory Committee (L&R Committee).

Since its launch in 2012, AVCA’s L&R Committee has assisted AVCA members to navigate the often complex legal and regulatory landscapes of different African countries, in order to advance private investment in Africa.

The Francophone Committee will be chaired by Rafik Mzah, Chief Legal Officer at AfricInvest Group, and include other influential industry practitioners from AVCA member firms: Arnaud Duhamel, Partner at Gide Loyrette Nouel AARPI, Carolyn Campbell, Managing Director and General Counsel at Emerging Capital Partners, Edouard Pontet, General Counsel at Swicorp, Laurence Elong-Mbassi, Attorney at Law – Of Counsel at STC Partners, Mara Topping, Partner at White & Case, Pascale Gallien, Partner at Heenan Paris AARPI, and Solomon Wifa, Partner at O’Melveny & Myers.

Under the guidance of AVCA’s L&R Committee, the Francophone Committee will support AVCA to advocate on behalf of the private equity and venture capital industry in French-speaking Africa.

The Committee will lead AVCA’s development of technical resources and training to help private equity and venture capital fund managers and investors to do business in French-speaking Africa, and support AVCA to develop educational resources on region-specific matters.

Rafik Mzah, Chair of the Francophone Committee, said: “With the existing and developing economic and legal cooperation amongst many French-speaking African countries, coupled with the increasing global focus on boosting business ties and investment in Africa, the formation of the Committee of experienced counsels from a range of leading firms is very timely."

"The Committee will assist AVCA’s growing membership with the tools and resources to propel and secure their investment activities in the Francophone region. We will also be targeting the rollout of AVCA’s Private Equity Country Guides for Francophone African countries, in French and English, to add to those already in place including Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia and Zimbabwe," he added.